There's no such thing as not worshipping.

Our Christian Worship lesson really is so full of goodness! I had the opportunity recently to go into Beaumont School and teach two year 10 classes (with the help of our wonderful work experience student) about what worship is and show them examples of different styles of Christian worship.

For me, one of the best parts of this lesson is seeing the surprise on their faces when you  show them an example of young people passionately worshipping Jesus at a summer festival and then ask 'is this what worship looks like to you?' You can tell that for some of the students this is not what they expect worship to look like. If you’ve been a Christian for a while you might be aware that there are lots of different ways to worship but for someone who doesn’t go to church, this lesson can be an eye-opening experience.

We go through the definition of worship but I think the next thing that catches the eye of the students is the photo of English football supporters cheering and a photo of Taylor Swift fans at her concert with the quote below that says:

“There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship” (David Foster)

I really like to let that one sink in because it gives them a chance to reflect on what it is that they are worshipping and whether they think this idea is true. Does everybody really worship something even if they don’t have a faith?

We also discuss Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman about how the worship that God wants is worship done in Spirit and in truth and how Christians believe that worship is one of our main purposes in life - to glorify God and to enjoy Him. These are great conversations, but the fun part is actually getting involved and trying out some of the different ways of worshipping.

In his book ‘Sacred Paths’ Gary Thomas speaks about 9 different pathways that help us to connect to God. We base the rest of the lesson on experiencing 7 or 8 of these different pathways (Traditional, Enthusiast, Activist, Contemplative, Naturalist, Intellectual, Caregiver and Ascetic). My classes enjoyed learning that Christians connect with God in different ways because we are all unique. I think overall their favourite pathway was Enthusiast which involved them listening to a Christian song about joy whilst drawing a picture with crayons of something that brings them joy (Do this yourself - it’s fun!). It’s a very simple activity but it was so good to be able to go round the class asking them about what really makes them happy.

The other activity that I noticed they really got into was giving them a list of feelings and corresponding bible verses for them to look up. I heard them chatting to each other saying ‘OK if you feel sad/scared/lonely/worried you should read this...’ I loved how they were choosing a feeling that they related to and reading the Bible to each other. This is actually something that brought me a lot of joy - seeing young people who don’t necessarily read the bible often reading the bible to their friends to encourage them.

At the end of the lesson we give them a calming listening activity and are able to hand them back to their teacher relaxed and happy. I hope that the information helps them with their GCSE RS but more than that I hope that by giving them a bit of space, it’s sparked some contemplation of their own about some of the deeper questions that the lesson brings to light.

Steph